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Dalhart council accepts police racial-profiling report; chief warns of staffing gaps
Summary
At its Jan. 27 meeting the Dalhart City Council accepted the Dalhart Police Department92s annual racial-profiling report and heard a staffing update in which the police chief said the department is short six officers and relies on limited night coverage.
The Dalhart City Council accepted the Dalhart Police Department92s annual racial-profiling report at its Jan. 27 meeting and heard from department leadership about staffing shortages that affect patrol coverage and investigative capacity.
Police Chief Tom Hughes told the council the department received fewer stops in the reporting year than the year before, a change he attributed primarily to staffing. "Currently, we're 6 short," Hughes said. "4 of those slots are taken by people in the academy. So I got 2 that should graduate the academy at the March, then I got 2 that should graduate academy in May." He added the department was interviewing a licensed peace officer and expected to fill another slot soon.
Hughes summarized casework and investigative workload in addition to stops. "In the past year, we've had just shy of 1,500 incidents reported to us or created by us. Of those 71 that are mainly investigated by our CID investigator, Sergeant Trevino," he said, and stressed the investigator needs additional support. Hughes said the department currently has one investigator handling those 71 cases, many of which involve child-protection allegations.
Hughes described current daily patrol staffing and administrative assignments: two officers on the night shift and one on days for the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. period, with the assistant chief, Corrales, currently working patrol because of staffing gaps. "Basically, I'm your only admin at the PD right now," Hughes said, adding that the department has no dedicated school resource officer and that officers are covering school duties on rotation.
Councilmember motioned to accept the profiling report; the council approved it by voice vote.
Why it matters: staffing shortfalls affect response capacity, investigative bandwidth for child-protection cases and routine patrol coverage. Chief Hughes said the department expects several academy graduations this spring that will reduce shortages, and he expressed confidence that public service levels would improve by year-end.
The council did not identify any changes to policy or take additional action beyond accepting the report.
